Telecommunications group Vodacom has demonstrated Africa’s first live fifth-generation (5G) data session on a commercially ready 5G mobile phone and network.

Showcased at the recent Vodacom Durban July horse racing event, the data session was successfully completed using electronics company LG’s V50 ThinQ 5G smartphone and Nokia’s AirScale 5G radio network solution.

“Vodacom has once again demonstrated what is possible when using 5G technology,” says Vodacom CTO Andries Delport.

The demonstration was the first using a commercially ready 5G smartphone on a commercially ready 5G network in Africa, as opposed to the use of fixed 5G routers as the customer device generally used in previous demonstrations.

The LG V50 ThinQ, with a 6.4" OLED FullVision display, is one of the first commercially ready smartphones in the world, Delport highlights.

“LG is very focused on expanding its leadership in 5G by introducing leading-edge devices and forging customer-orientated collaborations with carrier partners such as Vodacom,” says LG South Africa mobile GM Deon Prinsloo.

The Nokia Airscale 5G radio network solution uses an active antenna, with 128 antenna elements – 64 receive and 64 transmit – to deliver the latest 5G massive multiple-input multiple-output, or mMIMO, technology.

It also supports the latest 5G new radio technology and can support concurrent fourth-generation and 5G operation on the same radio, says Nokia Southern Africa subregion head Deon Geyser, adding that Nokia’s end-to-end 5G portfolio and professional services can support Vodacom in its 5G vision.

Meanwhile, also at the Vodacom Durban July, Vodacom showcased the first hologram in Africa carried over a commercially ready 5G network, using Nokia’s AirScale 5G radio network solution.

“To tie in with the ‘Stars of Africa’ theme of the 2019 Vodacom Durban July, the live karaoke performances of guests at the Vodacom paddock were streamed over a commercially ready 5G network setup at the location and then reproduced in real time using hologram technology at the race course,” Delport explains.

This provides a “small glimpse” into what a 5G-enabled future could look like.

“The applications of hologram technology are virtually endless, ranging from medical imaging and videoconferencing to gaming. Three-dimensional holographic communication requires about four times as much data as a streamed 4K video. That means that only 5G has the speed and low enough latency to support this kind of application on a mobile network.”

Vodacom’s 5G hologram demonstration followed the hologram demonstration at the inaugural Digital Economy summit earlier in July, where Vodacom and Nokia collaborated with the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies and the North West provincial government to enable President Cyril Ramaphosa, based in Midrand, to communicate with North West Premier Professor Job Mokgoro, based in Rustenburg, through a hologram.

Vodacom was granted a temporary spectrum licence by the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa of 100 MHz in the C-band spectrum range (3.5 GHz range) for the purposes of the demonstration at the Vodacom Durban July.

This spectrum band is well suited to providing good 5G coverage, unlike higher frequency bands such as mmWave (26 GHz and above), which have poor indoor penetration characteristics, the company notes.